


Love Me In The Dust

by CiaranthePage



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Post-Apocalypse, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 16:38:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8292676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaranthePage/pseuds/CiaranthePage
Summary: "...I gave her everything. My heart, my soul, my loyalty, my body."originally in a one-shot collection





	

**Author's Note:**

> this one shot was originally in my work _Shadows In The Universe_ , but I'm separating them all into individual fics for tagging and sharing convenience! originally posted 10/17/15

There were fourth truths I held close to my heart.

 

_First: The dust never settled._

Rose always told me that she believed once the dust settled, humans would come to an end. We were the very things kicking up all that dust, after all.

I believed her. I saw the dust our caravan kicked up simply by moving around. Once the dust settled, I told myself, humans have ended. It was my life goal to kick up dust for as long as I lived under the beating hot sun.

 

_Second: The caravan never stopped._

Garnet told me that the caravan was the lifeblood of humans. We brought things from encampment to encampment, trading and bartering for what we needed, what others needed. We were one of the last caravans around.

I knew this. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew this. Caravans brought food. Water. Soldiers. Warm bodies. News. Fire. Anything someone could need, you could find on a caravan.

 

_Third: The stones never landed the same way twice._

The witch girl, Amethyst, told me about the stones. She tossed them, debated on the outcome of the weather. She told me she could predict what weather would follow us that day.

I saw this happen. The stones never quite landed in the same formation, the same sides up, the same pattern. She read them perfectly, predicted with an accuracy even Rose admired. So I admired it.

 

_Fourth: Hearts never stop beating for the ones they love._

I told this to myself.

I told this to myself to keep me going, keep me driving, keep me walking. And I knew this because of one thing. One love.  _Rose_.

 

I'd fallen in love with Rose early. Before I knew I was to be swept away. Before I knew how kind she was, how lovely she was alone, how much acceptance she spread. I'd fallen in love with Rose when I saw her bouncing curls stepping up, volunteering to be swept away on the caravan, never to return. My heart started beating that day, I think. It has not stopped since.

 

Years passed. It did not stop beating. I saw Rose often -- I took a job as an unloader just to be closer to her, to see her, to brush hands with her. I never dreamed they'd hold another caravan draw in my lifetime, for the same one on which Rose rode. But one was held. I was chosen. I did not cry. I rejoiced.

 

Once I was swept away, I came face to face with Rose. And my heartbeat got stronger. She knew this -- _she felt it_ \-- her heart beat in tune with mine. I felt it. I felt her heartbeat in a way unlike any other human heartbeat I'd ever encountered in this world. So she asked me, in the dead of night, under a thousand stars, if my heart beat for her the way hers did for me.

 

And I swore on the marks of my birthright it did. And in that moment, I gave her something. No, I gave her _everything_. heart, my soul, my loyalty, my body.

 

Rose gave me her everything in return.

 

We probably made more love than necessary in those times; especially for a pair whose union would bear no children. Most nights, if there was enough silence, enough distance between us and the rest, enough room, enough tension, I would lean in close. And she would pull me in, wrapping me in warmth, and I would ask. And then pink lips would be on my own -- and everywhere else. Rose drove it all. The love-making, the direction, the caravan, my heart, my actions. I could think for myself, of course. I was still human. But Rose was my guide, my love, my safety. And why should it be any other way? She loved the feeling. She loved the control, the admiration, the leader position. I let her drive it all, and we were happy. _  
_

 

Rose left me covered in markings some nights. Witch Amethyst (as it was proper to call her) would tease me about it. She would ask and ask where I'd gotten all these sudden bruises. I never told her, only went to Rose and intertwined our fingers, mumbling in an old language my mother had taught me.

 

She only left the imprints of her soft touches on my mind others.

 

I kept going. My heart beat. It rang out into the silence that filled the rest of me, as my thoughts had long since gone quiet -- before I'd joined the caravan, even. I only felt things, now. I had no coherent thoughts besides those which became words. Even those were jumbled, a mix of languages, pitiful whines and cries for the love, the light of my life.

 

I let my body, my mind, my soul, all become Rose's. She filled me with her love, her joy, her kindness. I kept them inside, let them warm me up.

 

Let them spill to the floor when I lay eyes on her bloody wounds. The ones that ended her life.

 

She kissed me all over for the last time that night. She lay dying -- _I insisted we shouldn't, she should recover_ \-- she said she wouldn't, she knew she wouldn't -- _I gave in, I drew her love into me_ \-- she poured it into my body, into her kisses, into the love she gave me below -- and the next morning, I woke up cold and lonely, all my love gone, save blood stains on my skin and a still-beating heart. I found a note, lying crumpled in my hand.

 

_The boy. Find him. My brother -- Steven. He will return all I have taken with me, this night._

_I love you, My Pearl. Be safe. Join me one day._

 

I found the boy. His heart did not beat like mine. His heart beat lighter, softer, brighter. I was determined to find the matching heartbeat to this boy's.

 

I owed it to Rose, to let him live as long as he could, in loving bliss. At least, now that my own eyes saw the shattered world I'd been left alone in.


End file.
